Uxbridge by-election, 1997

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The Member of Parliament for Uxbridge, Sir Michael Shersby, (Conservative) died on May 8, 1997, just seven days after being re-elected in the 1997 General Election.

A by-election to fill the seat was held on July 31. The seat had been very marginal between Conservative and Labour in May, but the Labour Party candidate in the general election was not placed on the shortlist for the by-election candidacy. This was widely assumed to have been because he was considered unacceptably left-wing. The Conservative Party selected John Randall, the Managing Directory of Randall's furniture store (in Uxbridge) which had been operating for more than a century. The Labour Party candidate Andy Slaughter was the Leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, selected over Willie Bach, a Barrister from Nottinghamshire. Liberal Democrat candidate Keith Kerr was a senior executive with British Airways.

Labour fought an energetic campaign with an unusual visit by the sitting Prime Minister Tony Blair to campaign in person for a by-election candidate (Prime Ministers do not normally campaign personally in byelections because in the event of defeat, it might reflect on their own popularity). However the rejection of the previous locally based Labour candidate harmed the party. The Liberal Democrat suffered a classic third-party squeeze and the Conservative candidate was returned with a comfortable majority.

[edit] Results

Uxbridge by-election, 1997
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Randall	16,288	51.1	+7.6
	Labour	Andy Slaughter	12,522	39.3	-2.5
	Liberal Democrats	Keith Kerr	1,792	5.6	-5.4
	Monster Raving Loony	Screaming Lord Sutch	396	1.3	N/A
	Socialist Alternative	Julia Leonard	259	0.8	-0.1
	British National	Frances Taylor	205	0.7	N/A
	National Democrats	Ian Anderson	157	0.5	N/A
	National Front	John McAuley	110	0.3	N/A
	Independent Liberal	Henry Middleton	69	0.2	N/A
	UK Independence	James Feisenberger	39	0.1	N/A
	ProLife Alliance	Ronnie Carroll	30	0.1	N/A
Majority			3,766
Turnout				55.2	-16.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Uxbridge
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Shersby	18,095	43.5
	Labour	David Williams	17,371	41.8
	Liberal Democrats	Andrew Malyan	4,528	10.9
	Referendum Party	Garrick Aird	1,153	2.8	N/A
	Socialist Alternative	Julia Leonard	398	1.0	N/A
Majority			724
Turnout				72.3
	Conservative hold		Swing